Category: Blog
True life adventures of my real true life.
Real Things vs. Screens
My favorite attraction at any Disney park is, and always will be, The Country Bear Jamboree. I understand there are those who find it hokey and even lame, but to me it really is a magical attraction and I would take it over many of today’s modern attractions.
You see, to me, real things are always more jaw dropping and awesome than watching computer generated things on a screen. The Escape from Gringotts ride at Universal in Orlando, probably one of the most state of the art attractions currently operating in the world? Didn’t do a thing for me. Why? Because you are looking at a screen the whole time. There’s a little piece of my brain that knows nothing I’m seeing is real, so why should I care?
Now, the Radiator Springs Racers attraction at Disney’s California Adventure is just amazing to me. They build real, life size, animatronic figures of the Cars characters and you can see them. Right there next to you. To me, that is just simply amazing.
And before you think that I’m some sort of Disney fanboy who is just hating on Universal, I’m not. The most recent update to Star Tours at Disneyland, the one that replaced the original movie with new movies where you have to wear 3D glasses and watch a completely computer generated film? Awful, in my opinion. Even with the ‘never the same ride twice’ technology. In the old version of the attraction, you watched a screen, but the stuff you are seeing on the screen is real. Miniature models shot with a camera. Sure there’s visual effects, but you’re seeing real things.
Anyway, back to the bears. I like them because they are real. People built these big, life sized bears. And they move and appear to play instruments. Sure, they aren’t really playing the instruments or singing, but they are real. Not 1’s and 0’s.
I also have a fondness for country music. Old time country music. Blame my Grandma Donny. She used to listen to country music, like the Oak Ridge Boys, and I used to love listening to it with her. So, the Country Bear Jamboree is my favorite and has been since I was a kid.
To that end, I have entered the somewhat crowded world of Disney podcasts by creating my own called the Country Bear Collector Show. A short video podcast where I show off a piece of my Country Bear Collection.
Yes, the show is extremely, oddly specific, but I think that’s what makes it work. Right now there is no website out there devoted specifically to Country Bear Merchandise and I think that might be what helps this show find some traction. Find a need, fill that need.
Below is the first episode. Give it a watch, even if you aren’t a CBJ fan and let me know what you think. New episodes each Friday.
You can subscribe to the Country Bear Collector Show via iTunes or by subscribing to the Saturday Morning Media YouTube Page. Also, if you want to see better pictures of the items featured in each episode, you can do so by visiting www.CBJCollector.com.
Senior TP Night
Here’s another blog entry you can read or listen to as I recorded it for the Grantcast. If you want to subscribe to the Grantcast, you can do so with iTunes, or by using this feed in your favorite podcatcher. Enjoy!
Senior TP Night
By Grant Baciocco
There was a tradition at Burlingame High School that, the night before the first day of school, the Senior class would give the front of the school the TP treatment. Meaning, they would cover the beautiful sequoia trees in the front of the school with toilet paper. I must say, I can still remember my first day of my Freshman year, pulling up to the front of the school and being awed at the sight of that toilet paper hanging off the trees. It was intimidating, “What have I gotten myself into?” The annual TPing of the school was something that you didn’t think about too much as you progressed through the years, but it was always in the back of your mind, “When I’m a senior, I get to do this!”
I was in band all four years of high school. A drummer. And for band kids, school actually started two weeks earlier in the form of Band Camp. We didn’t go away or anything, we just came to school each day and worked on our marching and pep rally type songs for four hours or so. Because of this, we were around the school for several days before the year began. Senior year, as the start of school creeped closer, thoughts of being able to TP the school started to creep into my head. I frequently discussed it with my two close friends, Dan and Jeanette. We were all excited about this tradition it was now our turn to partake in. There was only one problem, we were band kids. As such, we didn’t often interact with the ‘cool kids’ who’d be the main ones TPing the school in just a few days. But then I had an idea. “What if,” I told my pals, “We did something else? What if we TP’d the school in a different way?”
Dan, Jeanette and I discussed the different possibilities of achieving this and suddenly we hit upon the idea of, while the other seniors were toilet papering the outside of the school, what if we toilet papered the inside? This idea excited us all but we quickly realized that we couldn’t just break into the school and, on top of that, the school did have an alarm. Then a guardian angel appeared. Now, I will not reveal who this guardian angel was but I will say it was someone who was very knowledgeable about the the workings of the alarm system of the school. Not how to disarm it, but just which areas of the school were alarmed and which areas were not. We were told that a large open hallway area between the band room and two english classrooms were not alarmed and that would be our best bet as a place to wreak our TP mischief. This angel gave us a map showing which doors and windows to stay away from and even discreetly hinted at how we could enter the building without a key or breaking any windows. We were all set.
The night before school we drove to the campus and drove right past all the other seniors TPing the front of the building. We drove back around to the band room and parked and found our way to the secret entry point. In seconds, we were in. We knew going in, that the hallway would be harder to toilet paper than a bunch of trees, so we brought a long scotch tape to help us hang the toilet paper from he walls. Also Jeanette, being crafty, made some hilarious signs to hane above the doors of the classrooms. English teacher Mr/ Morgan got ‘Glen’s Pad.” Mrs. Caret got ‘Elaine’s Bungalo of love.” The band teacher, Mr. Kimura, got ‘Mr. K’s,’ which was also the name of a local nightclub in burlingame.
We spent about an hour making everything perfect and, when we were finally satisfied, to honor the moment, we snapped a few pictures of our handiwork and carefully snuck out of the building and into the night.
The next morning I was so excited to get back to school to see the reaction of the people as they walked into the band room area hallway, I parked and made a bee line to the door to the hallway. I ran up to the door, flung it open and…the entire hallway was spotless. There wasn’t a square of toilet paper anywhere. The signs were gone from above the doors. It was your average, everyday hallway. I was crestfallen. Jeanette and Dan arrived and they too were majorly bummed out. We had worked so hard.
Apparently, what had happened is the janitors had arrives earlier, found the mess and cleaned it all up before anyone else arrived. Insert sad trombone sound here.
Not to be deterred in letting people know what we had done, I wrote an anonymous letter to the Burlingame B, the school’s newspaper telling everything that had happened. And I included one of the pictures of the toilet paper hanging in the hallway. The letter ran and the world knew. But it would have been much better had they seen it with their own eyes. I read the printed letter and the picture accompanied it. Under the photo, a byline, Photo by Grant Baciocco. Oops. Maybe I should have just shut up about it.
I was never punished or anything. But that was the story of the one time the inside of Burlingame High School was toilet papered.
©2015 Grant Baciocco/Saturday Morning Media
Here’s what I want to do…
I’ve been thinking about ‘what’s next’ when it comes to my project of releasing one piece of audio a week in 2015. I’ve had some feedback that people like the essays I’ve been releasing via audio and also publishing here so I could continue that.
I am also toying with the idea of recording audio of and publishing on here one of the various novels/novellas I’ve written (or am currently writing). I have a few, Time Skippers, The Cauldron of Hate and the one I’m currently writing which is, as of now, tentatively titled: Agents of The Vault.
It’s the one I’m working on now that most excites me. It is a Western, with a twist, and I’m just finishing it up and I think it’s a really good candidate to release in a weekly/serial fashion. A chapter or two a week until the whole story is ‘out there.’ I’d also record and release the audio each week for those who’d rather listen than read. I could also release it as a PDF/eBook file as well.
The western adventure aspect of the story reminds me of a Dime Novel. Or the way that Stephen King originally released The Green Mile (man, I loved that). Anyway, this got me thinking about how I could do the same with this story. Sending, to those that want it, printed copies of each chapter through the mail. I think that would be a lot of fun and, as long as it was only a handful of people, I would do it at my own expense.
Each week, you’d receive an printed copy of that week’s released chapter(s). I’m thinking they’d be printed in a mini book, a book made out of 8 1/2″ x 11″ pieces of paper folded in half. Maybe they’d have some simple piece of artwork on the front, though maybe not because I’d rather ‘get them out there’ than wait for art to be done. Anyway, this is an idea I’m toying around with.
I’d love to know what you think. Would you want a printed chapter mailed to you each week? Or is this just an idea that I like and nobody else would?
As a kid I loved getting unique things in the mail and, as an adult, I still do. I also completely understand that no one needs more crap around their house and my western adventure novel certainly could be considered crap. But, it 5 to 10 people think it’d be fun, I’d explore figuring out how to do it. If it was a hit, it could continue, The Saturday Morning Media Book Club!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
100 Word Book Review – The Moose That Roared by Keith Scott
After finishing up the Jim Henson Biography, I kind of made a promise to myself that I’ll read more. I have way too many books stacked up on my nightstand, so I’ve really been setting aside time each day to read.
As I read, I like to write down quotes that jump out at me from the book and I figured I’d start posting my thoughts on the books and those quotes, here. Perhaps you’ll find interest in something I’ve read and want to read it yourself. Perhaps not. At any rate, that’s what I’m doing.
I’ll provide Amazon links to the books (they will be affiliate links) if you’d like to check it out for yourself. Anyway, let’s get going with the book I just finished.
The Moose That Roared by Keith Scott
Buy On Amazon (Affiliate Link)
100 Word Review – This is a thorough, dense book that is filled with microscopic detail about the shows that came out of Ward Productions. Unlike the Jim Henson Biography, I think this would be a daunting book for casual Bullwinkle fans. For example, the whole back section of the book is basically a reference book that breaks down each individual cartoon episode and who did what voices of each character in it. It is for those who want all the information. That said, Jay Ward is an idol, so I loved this book, even if it did take some time to get through.
Quotes:
“The real trouble with TV is that everyone is trying to please someone else. We stopped going to the networks. They’re friendly and nice, but we never get an affirmative answer. I really can’t blame the network man. I go into see them with some far out thing and they have so many nice, slick shows from universal or MGM. They go the safe route. Any ideas you take to a network has to go through 15 guys. 14 of them may like it, but it’s the 15th says no, they all want to hedge and take a second look. If it’s something wild, they back off.” – Jay Ward
“I think maybe kids are the most intelligent audience for TV anyhow. We go our happy way with our cartoons. But we are undaunted. My true Dudley do rights, we keep trying, ignoring the obvious.” – Jay Ward
“We try to do as many funny things as we could think of that would amuse ourselves. We felt the animation action would entertain children and we could do our own satire and humor based on our own adult feelings. Our main interest was funny humor.” – Jay Ward
“Much of J Ward’s behavior reflected to dominate features in his make up: fiercely independent desire for quality, and a lifelong pursuit of fun.” – Keith Scott
“Jay felt that dirty language betrayed a lack of intelligence. If someone came on his crude, it wasn’t that Jay would dislike that person; but he thought crudity itself was just a waste of time.” – Skip Craig
“We aim at neither adults not children. Our goal is to achieve the ultimate on comedy, including subtleties which escape the youngsters, but which evoke response from adults.” – Jay Ward
“If you turned off the sound and watched one of our shows, the appeal would be mostly for children. With the vision off and just the sound on, the appeal would be for adults. The whole show appeals to everyone. And if you listen, we say things that are might sharp.” -Jay Ward
“Even though animated shows have a large audience of kids, you have to remember it’s the same kids who watch The Untouchables, Twilight Zone and Bob Hope. Kids today are exposed to an adult world and they’re sharp. Our stuff is sharper and more sophisticated than many of the dramatic shows. Everything we do is satire and whimsy-that makes the fun. ” – Jay Ward
“When we write stories, we obtain the barest of thread of a plot and then write as we go.” The request for script outlines was never heard again but Ward didn’t let it rest there, adding, “We have always tried to write as funny as we know how.” He considered Johnson’s theory – that the show was “geared for children who don’t understand this type of humor” – to be “hogwash.” – From The Moose That Roared.
“This is fun work…actually, I’d be doing it if I didn’t make a darned cent.” – Jay Ward